'I love Melbourne as a city to live in. I find the balance right. You can do anything you want in Melbourne. And with even a middle income the world is your oyster.'

Food aficionados owe a debt to Mrs Malcolm. She was the home economics teacher at Melbourne’s Essendon Grammar School who, in the early 1990s, recognised rare culinary aptitude in a shaggy-haired schoolboy called Shannon Bennett. Her guidance set him on course for an apprenticeship as a chef; less than a decade later he was the owner and creative genius behind one of Melbourne’s best restaurants, Vue de monde.

At the age of 30, Bennett now presides over an establishment employing almost 50 staff. In June 2005, his restaurant moved to swanky premises in the heart of the city; just over a year later it was named Restaurant of the Year by The Age Good Food Guide, scoring an unprecedented 19 out of 20.

Alongside partner Madeleine West, a former Neighbours star, Bennett appears on the social pages as well as the food pages. Their daughter, Phoenix, was born in December 2005. ‘Great food in Melbourne is not a fad or a fashion,’ Bennett says. ‘There is a tradition of great food here that you don’t find in any other Australian city. I was lucky. I think Mrs Malcolm recognised that I had this passion, and it just went from there.’